Laura E. Richards

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (February 27, 1850 – January 14, 1943) was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse Eletelephony.

Biography Laura Elizabeth Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1850. Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. She was named after his famous deaf-blind pupil Laura Bridgman. Her mother Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

In 1871, Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill at Gardiner, Maine, where the couple moved with their three children. In 1917 Laura won a Pulitzer Prize for Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, a biography, which she co-authored with her sisters, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Hall.

She created the boy's club Howe Club in 1886 (which lasted approximately 25 years), and then got involved in many local education projects. The Green Satin Gown (1903) The Tree in the City (1903) Mrs. Tree's Will (1905) The Armstrongs (1905) The Piccolo (1906) The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906) At Gregory's House (1907) Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907) Ten Ghost Stories (1907) The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908) The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908) A Happy Little Time (1910) Up to Calvin's (1910) On Board the Mary Sands (1911) Jolly Jingles (1912) Miss Jimmy (1913) The Little Master (1913) Three Minute Stories (1914) The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915) Fairy Operettas (1916) Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917) A Daughter of Jehu (1918) To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918) Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920) In Blessed Cyrus (1921) The Squire (1923) Acting Charades (1924) Seven Oriental Operettas (1924) Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925) Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New (1932) Merry-Go-Round: New Rhymes and Old (1935) E. A. R. (1936) Please! Rhymes of Protest (1936) Harry in England (1937) I Have a Song to Sing You (1938) The Hottentot and Other Ditties (1939) What Shall the Children Read (1939) Laura E. Richards and Gardiner (a compilation of poems and articles, 1939)